There are two kinds of movies. There are entertainers and there are challengers. Considering the way it completely breaks apart 73 seconds in and goes on to be regarded as one the most shameful and preventable disasters ever recorded, Uwe Boll's Alone in the Dark is decidedly a Challenger.
Indeed, the film challenges both its audience and the culture surrounding it. Particularly bold are its alien monsters, which Uwe has unapologetically dubbed "Xenos", daring you to compare them to the more well-known and highly regarded Xerox subsidiary, Zeno Office Solutions. Bolder still is the casting of vapid space case Tara Reid as an ostensibly competent archaeologist, sending the uplifting message that dumb girls can be smart too.
But perhaps the most challenging aspect of the film is the way Uwe expands and evolves the frankly played-out "unreliable narrator" convention to also include an unreliable prop department, unreliable captioning, and a bevy of unreliable lighting rigs. What is the plot? Uwe won't tell you, and by doing so, he cheekily holds up a mirror to you, the sole viewer in the empty theater, to reveal that it is YOU who is alone and in the dark.
